Landon McNamara is a professional big wave surfer, musician, and Ford model from Hawaii's North Shore. His music blends reggae, blues, and rock n' roll. McNamara's surfing family includes his father, contest director Liam, and his uncle, big-wave surfer Garrett, who was featured in the HBO documentary 100 Foot Wave. Landon McNamara Video

Big things are coming!!. The singer-songwriter and guitarist is on the cusp of a major swell- familiar waters for this accomplished surfer- but this wave is one of song and soul. McNamara’s newest drop, the laid back yet deeply spiritual “If You Only Knew,” renews the artist with strains of acoustic reggae and Hawaiian soul, underpinning a thoughtful recitation on the value of life, and ultimately, the power of love. “The only promised thing to us all is death. And at the end of our life, when you're taking that last breath, would you be satisfied with how you spent your time?” asks McNamara. “I wanna motivate people to realize life isn’t about money, or shiny things, or social status. It’s about experiences; creating beautiful memories; family; friends; finding out who you truly are and living that existence to the fullest. Above all, it’s about love.”

“Well its inevitable that one day we all gotta go drift away, but if you had to die tomorrow what would you do today, would you take that last breath, would you feel content with how that time was spent?” - Landon McNamara “If You Only Knew”

“The original seeds of inspiration behind this song came from way back, since a young kid I’ve always been aware and at time consumed by the big questions of life, where we came from, where we will go, and that death is inevitable for us all. At the moment I made the song, it was inspired by my Drummer and good friend Kimo (who also produced this song). His father had just passed away and he shared that sad news, it filled me with the feelings that this song was born from. As for if it’s part of a bigger protect we got going on, there’s nothing set in stone but we have a lot of songs we are waiting to figure out what we are gonna do with.”

As the scion of one of the Islands’ esteemed surfing families, McNamara’s earliest experiences came baptized by the power of the ocean. Yet, music, from a young age, proved as magnetic as the heavy current of the Pacific; home video of McNamara as a toddler captures him grooving to a Ziggy Marley performance in Turtle Bay.

In elementary school he established a basic foundation of music theory, gleaned tips from a friend with an acoustic guitar, and endlessly studied songs on YouTube that he wanted to master. As a teen, McNamara devotedly retreated to his basement, honing his guitar chops and developing his voice. He shared early efforts with friends hanging at his place- an affectionately self-proclaimed “house of hoodlums”- who encouraged McNamara. Soon, he was a regular at neighborhood open-mic nights. Music was meditative; a release. It felt good for the socially anxious musician reared on the reggae poetry of Bob Marley and the psychedelic majesty of Jimi Hendrix. He collaborated with local reggae group, The Late Ones, filming an impromptu take of his original, “Jam With You,” and posted the fledgling video on YouTube.

The track would surface on McNamara’s 2016 debut LP, A Dollar Short & A Minute Late. Success came swiftly. The album bowed at #1 on iTunes and #5 on Billboard’s Reggae chart; a seemingly overnight rise for the relatively unknown from the North Shore.. A mature follow-up album, Still Kickin’, followed the hotly performing debut, while McNamara centered his focus, dropped his high-profile modeling gig with the Ford Agency, and outfitted his home with proper gear and a production space. early success wasn’t without time and effort. There was also his two-year surfing/songwriting sabbatical in Tahiti. And finding his own signature vocal tone. The world around him became his muse. He wrote hundreds of songs, simply tucking them away in his mind, waiting for the ideal moment.